Woman expecting yoga mat gets $400,000 worth of drugs instead

Oct. 3 (UPI) -- A South Carolina woman expecting a new yoga mat opened a package that arrived at her home and instead discovered $400,000 worth of illicit prescription drugs.

The Rock Hill Police Department said the woman thought the package was a new yoga mat when it was handed to her by the mail carrier about 2 p.m. Saturday.

The woman opened the box and found it actually contained nearly 20,000 pills of opiate drug oxycodone.

The woman turned the package and its contents over to police, who passed them along to the York County Multijurisdictional Drug Enforcement Unit.

Marvin Brown, commander of the unit, said each pill has a street value of about $20, bringing the package's total worth to approximately $400,000.

Brown said the package was intended for the woman's former address, a currently vacant apartment, but was forwarded by the U.S. Postal Service. He said such drug packages are often mailed to vacant residences, where the intended recipient will wait for them to arrive.

"The dealers weren't as intelligent as they thought they were," Brown told WSOC-TV.

The box was shipped from Newport Beach, Calif. Police said the oxycodones are likely counterfeits pressed into pills from powder in Mexico.